Everything is Amazing…

…and Nobody’s Happy. Thanks, Gracie, for showing me this phenomenal social commentary from Louis CK on Conan:

Android on Desktops?

Whoa!

Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Wednesday, July 8, 2009 — 12:39 AM ET
—–

Google Plans to Introduce a PC Operating System

In a direct challenge to Microsoft, Google is expected to
announce on Wednesday that it is developing an operating
system for a personal computer based on its Chrome browser,
according to two people briefed on Google’s plans.

The move would sharpen the already intense competition
between Google and Microsoft, whose Windows operating system
controls the basic functions of the vast majority of personal
computers.

HTC Sponsorship

Growing up during the incredible acceleration of the Information Age and quickly getting used to being bombarded by advertisements everywhere, I’m become quite good at ignoring sponsors, plugs, etc. I think it took me three years before I discovered that that old French team Jean Delatour was actually a jeweler. For a while, I just figured it was some John’s touring company or something (Jean de la Tour…which would make sense if only le Tour were feminine). Anyway, the point is, I normally don’t pay attention to sponsors and often wonder if big ones in soccer, cycling, or F1 really do get their 10-50 million Euro per year back in sales.

Well, there’s no confusion on Team Columbia’s new cosponsor HTC. Cavendish won Stage 3 of this year’s Tour de France and made the somewhat dorky gesture to the addition to the jersey, along with answering the telephone (HTC makes high-end cell phones). But something that could be dismissed as just “eh, cute” was backed up by the personality of the team. Bob Stapleton, the owner, who took over after being a T-Mobile exec for a while and whom we all know as being a pretty relaxed, straight-shooter in the cycling world, also came out in recent days and said HTC “is going to kick iPhone’s ass.”

Of course, I’m not sure this is true…at least from a total sales point-of-view. But, hearing this from Stapleton, plus getting reminded not at all subtly of the fact by Cav, really made me want to check out this site just because I know these two weren’t really B.S.-ing.

Two things I discovered on the site:
1) Maybe HTC will actually kick iPhone’s ass, at least from a customizability standpoint. They’ve got some killer smartphones on there, including ones with browsers that will read Flash (another extraordinary iPhone fail). They’re just even more expensive (so this doesn’t really apply to me).
2) It’s nice to see HTC is, likewise, obviously proud of their sponsor-team relationship. They’ve got Cav plastered on the front today. Plus, they’ve got the “Meet the Team” bit in the bottom corner. (You’re definitely not seeing something like this from Astana.)

What’s my point? I guess it’s just that there are ways in which you can break my general desensitization of advertising/sponsors/plugging. And, more specifically, Stapleton and Cav did it quite well this week.

Waiting on FedEx

Gee, what for? I wonder….

WWDC Part Two

iPhone 3G S? Dorky name, but good device. The new operating system has some great features. Faster, of course. Better camera. Video camera. Voice recorder/dialer/crazy AI thing. And 32GB. Still can’t hold all my music, but we’re slowing getting there, I guess.

AT&T? Sucktastic. One of the coolest new features shown was tethering—plugging your phone into your computer and allowing your computer to use your phone’s connection, if there’s no WiFi around. They showed a graphic at the conference of all of the networks around the world supporting this. The one missing? AT&T. They’ll get to it “this summer” and it’ll of course cost an arm and a leg. So nevermind. Tethering is not as cool as I thought.

Sucktastic Thing #2: iPhone 3G S actually costs $200 more if you have a current contract with AT&T (plus an upgrade charge) that is not already 18 months old. And that MMS support we’ve been holding out for? Also not coming until “this summer” and that’s going to cost you too.

I found a good article on lots of this stuff. Check it out here: http://bit.ly/Md0PN. Final WWDC thoughts? Apple delivered well. Nothing mind-blowing, but all very quality updates and new products we were counting on. AT&T did not deliver. Then again, it’s not their conference. But, c’mon, it’s not like they need an annual event to not deliver decent service; that’s more like a daily occurrence.